Category: Ryan Coogler

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Box Office Ryan Coogler

Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ tops the box office again, much to Hollywood’s chagrin

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Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was released two Fridays ago to fantastic reviews and trade paper disgust. It’s not that the trade papers had particular feelings about Sinners as a film, they were loudly angry that Coogler successfully negotiated the kind of deal that white auteurs would receive, notably that Coogler gets a percentage of the gross (a front-end deal rather than a backend deal) and that ownership of Sinners reverts to Coogler after 25 years. Hollywood’s white gatekeepers were furious! The trade papers were desperate to make it sound like Sinners would never recover Warner Bros’ investment and that WB was foolish for giving Coogler that deal. Well, it’s taken less than two weeks for the American audience to show Hollywood that we love original horror stories and we want Coogler to keep making these kinds of movies.

The weekend box office is on fire, with ticket sales up more than 120 percent over the same frame last year. The blaze is led by Warner Bros.’ Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan. Heading into its sophomore outing, the film was expected to compete with Ben Affleck-starrer The Accountant 2 for the top spot with anywhere from $20 million to $25 million.

But the supernatural period vampire pic continues to defy all the odds and easily stayed No. 1 domestically with a phenomenal $45 million to boast one of the smallest drops in history for a movie playing outside of the year-end holidays, or 6 percent off from its $48 million opening weekend. Put another way, Sinners boasts the smallest second-weekend decline for any film opening north of $40 million since 2009’s Avatar and the smallest ever for an R-rated horror title. That puts the film’s domestic tally through Sunday at $122.5 million and an astounding $161.6 million globally. At this pace, there’s no telling how far in the black the $90 million movie will end up after some naysayers labeled it a money-loser even before it had a chance to bare its teeth.

Graced with virtually perfect audience scores and the best reviews of filmmaker Coogler‘s already acclaimed career, Sinners has transformed into the rare title that has become a runaway water-cooler sensation in a major victory for Warners’ movie chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca. The pic is broadening out in term of ethnicity and gender, according to the studio. One example: females now make up half the audience, whereas males made up 56 percent of all opening weekend ticket buyers.

Revenge of the Sith edged past The Accountant with an estimated $25.2 million to come in second and score one of the top openings ever for a rerelease. The crownholder continues to belong to 1977’s Star Wars, which grossed $35.9 million when it hit theaters again in 1997, not adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.

[From THR]

Notice how THR completely ignores any discussion of The Accountant 2 and the budget for that sequel – it cost $80 million to make a sequel to a Ben Affleck film which no one was really asking for. That’s only $10 million less than Sinners’ budget, and it’s unlikely that The Accountant 2 will break even long-term. Yet Sinners was declared a money-loser as it premiered, and the trade papers are still trying to find a negative angle on its success.

Also, I said this on social media yesterday, but it definitely feels like the white audience really wanted to see Sinners, but they waited a week out of respect – Tom Cruise and Kevin Bacon both posted on social media this weekend about how much they loved the film.

Congratulations Ryan, Michael, and to the entire cast and crew. Must see in a cinema and stay through the end credits! pic.twitter.com/rQ54y74j2e

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) April 27, 2025

I love to see movie stars gush about other people’s movies #Sinners pic.twitter.com/DHdZ4uwDGz

— ???? Physical Media Forever ???? (@VHSDVDBLURAY4K) April 26, 2025

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Avalon Red.

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michael b jordan Ryan Coogler

Hollywood is furious that Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ is already hugely successful

hollywood-is-furious-that-ryan-coogler’s-‘sinners’-is-already-hugely-successful

Without a doubt, Ryan Coogler is one of the most important filmmakers working today. Coogler isn’t even 40 years old and he’s already directed nine films, including Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, Wakanda Forever and now Sinners. Fruitvale Station was the film which got me to sit up and notice Coogler’s work and people still sleep on that brilliantly done film. Well, Coogler spent years putting together Sinners, his original horror story of vampires in the Jim Crow South. Sinners got phenomenal reviews across the board, and it felt like everyone on my timeline went to see it over Easter weekend. In fact, Sinners dethroned The Minecraft Movie at #1 on the box office. But instead of praising Coogler for creating such a wonderfully original film, this is how everyone’s reporting the success: “‘Sinners’ Is a Box Office Success (With a Big Asterisk); Ryan Coogler’s original horror film was expected to sell a strong $46 million in tickets over the weekend, enough for No. 1. But its profitability remains a long way off.” That’s from the NY Times, but the trade papers took similar angles: sure, Sinners won the box office, but why isn’t it profitable yet???

“Sinners” sold an estimated $46 million in tickets in North America from Thursday afternoon through Sunday, box office analysts said, a terrific result for an original, R-rated, slow-burning horror drama set in the 1930s and rooted in Black culture. Reviews were rapturous.

But the film — directed, written and produced by Ryan Coogler — was expensive, analysts noted, costing Warner Bros. at least $150 million to make and market worldwide. The studio also agreed to demands by Mr. Coogler’s representatives for unusually generous compensation.

As a result, for Warner Bros. to make money, “Sinners” will need to attract substantial crowds in the weeks ahead. “It’s an excellent opening for a period horror film, except that it’s hard to call it completely successful because of its enormous budget,” David A. Gross, a film consultant, said in an email.

In a statement, Pam Abdy and Mike De Luca, co-chairs of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, said they were “thrilled” by the “stellar” turnout. “Warner Bros. Pictures remains committed to bringing singular in-theater experiences to audiences looking for bold movies, both original and those based on beloved existing properties,” they said.

[From The NY Times]

This is the root of the problem, according to the Times, the trade papers and Hollywood’s white gatekeepers: “The studio also agreed to demands by Mr. Coogler’s representatives for unusually generous compensation.” That sentence pisses me off more than I can even verbalize. Coogler’s films have already crossed $2 billion cumulatively. Coogler didn’t “demand” anything – he has a proven track record of returning studio investment, and he negotiated a deal similar to what Quentin Tarantino negotiates. The deal being: Warner Bros gave Coogler $90 million to make Sinners, Coogler gets a front-end percentage of box-office receipts AND ownership of Sinners reverts back to him after 25 years. Basically, a Black filmmaker with a proven track record of successful films negotiated a great deal for what many thought was a passion project which would have next to no audience. They’re mad that Sinners is already successful and will continue to be successful as a word-of-mouth hit.

Entertainment media is being weird over a Black-directed movie again, example #4532

(Btw each of these articles are written by non-Black journalists)

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— Juwan H. ✍???? (@juwanthecurator.bsky.social) April 20, 2025 at 3:49 PM

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Racist Ryan Coogler

Ryan Coogler showed ID & his ATM card at Bank of America & they still called the cops

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The comments in yesterday’s Ryan Coogler post were a mess of racism and, I believe, a smear campaign being willfully executed by a certain bank. Judging from the comments here, on TMZ and on Twitter, a certain bank was fully prepared to smear Ryan Coogler to cover their own asses after they operated with racism towards a customer. Even details within TMZ’s reporting were being willfully misrepresented over and over, in the same exact way. GMAFB. You will be banned from commenting here if you are racist or if you continue to misrepresent or mischaracterize this racist incident.

The reporting around this situation has now been filled out by outlets other than TMZ, and it’s clear that Coogler was victimized even worse than we originally believed. What happened, according to Variety’s reporting and Ryan Coogler’s own comments to the police who handcuffed and detained him, is that he entered a Bank of America branch with his mask on (because we’re still in a pandemic). He showed the teller his withdrawal slip with the note on the back, asking for discretion as he withdrew $12,000 from his own account. He spoke with the teller, inserted his own ATM/Debit card, entered his PIN number, and verified his identity by handing the teller his driver’s license. The teller took everything to the back and she and the bank manager(s) called the cops on him while he was waiting in line.

Ryan Coogler was clearly stunned when cops pulled guns on him as he tried to make a legal withdrawal from his bank account … and it was all caught on police body cam footage. pic.twitter.com/tlFWNSK5iQ

— TMZ (@TMZ) March 10, 2022

More video has been released after Ryan Coogler & his two peers were terrorized by Atlanta police. In this video Ryan Coogler reveals he SHOWED the bank people his ID, put his own card in, his own PIN in. Ryan Coogler deserves love and protection. f*ck y’all. #BlackPanther pic.twitter.com/HviX1Dqwhj

— Jason (One Piece stan) (@EscaflowneClown) March 10, 2022

I don’t want to hear “he should have done this” or “he shouldn’t have done it that way.” Ryan Coogler went to his own f–king bank, handed a withdrawal slip to the teller with a note asking for discretion, showed ID, gave them his card and entered his PIN number. This was racism. This was an American bank calling the cops on a Black man for trying to withdraw money from his account.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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Ryan Coogler

Ryan Coogler was handcuffed & detained for trying to withdraw cash from his bank

ryan-coogler-was-handcuffed-&-detained-for-trying-to-withdraw-cash-from-his-bank

I like to carry cash. I usually have around $100-150 in cash in my wallet at any given time. It’s probably a generational thing – I’m old enough to remember a time when most people carried cash and paid for meals, gas and maybe even groceries in cash. I probably shouldn’t admit that I carry cash, but I don’t live in an area where I feel like I’m in any danger of being held up or robbed. That being said, I would be nervous as hell to carry cash in excess of a few hundred dollars. I would look and act squirrelly if I had thousands in my purse. Which is why director Ryan Coogler asked for some discretion when he went to Bank of America to withdraw $12K from his bank account. He passed a note to the teller asking for just that, discretion. Instead, the teller called the cops on him and he was handcuffed and detained… for trying to withdraw money from his own account.

Bank staffers mistakenly thought Ryan Coogler was staging a robbery — so they called cops, and the famed director actually ended up in handcuffs … briefly. According to an Atlanta PD report, obtained by TMZ, Coogler was detained after stopping in a Bank of America to make a transaction back in January — a completely legal transaction, mind you, but that’s not how one teller took it.

Coogler walked in rocking shades and a COVID face mask — not uncommon, of course — but he handed the teller a withdrawal slip that had a note written on the back. We’re told his message read, “I would like to withdraw $12,000 cash from my checking account. Please do the money count somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet.” Understandable, considering the amount of money he was getting … but this led to the teller thinking something suspicious was going down, and cops were called for an attempted robbery.

When officers arrived, they detained 2 people waiting outside for Ryan in an SUV — and then went in and brought RC himself out in handcuffs.After an investigation, the police say this was all just a huge mistake … and the fault lies with the BoA employee, who’s described in the report as a pregnant Black woman.

According to the report, when the teller went to make the transaction on her computer, it triggered some sort of an alert. So, she told her boss Coogler was attempting to rob the bank, and they called 911. In the end, cops realized this was a screw up, and Ryan had actually done nothing wrong. Sounds like Ryan wasn’t too pleased … the report notes he asked for badge numbers of all the responding officers once everyone was released.

He’s been in GA a lot over the past year, filming the sequel to “Black Panther,” which itself has been a drama-filled process with cast injuries and alleged COVID conspiracy talk.

Ryan Coogler tells TMZ … “This situation should never have happened. However, Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on.”

[From TMZ]

The bank and the bank teller are all fudging the whole “triggered alert” thing. American banks will get an alert if someone is trying to withdraw or move money over $9K or $10K. But that’s all it is, an alert on their computer, and it’s about counterterrorism, not bank robberies. It doesn’t follow that the cops are called every time someone’s bank transaction exceeds $9K. This situation with Ryan Coogler is utter bullsh-t and racism. I feel sorry for Coogler, but it sounds like he’s already dealing with it. I hope he changes banks too, why should Bank of America keep his money.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.